first all grain a success!!!

So my first all grain beer, the American wheat from Northern Brewer, has been in a keg four days. I hit it with 30 psi for two days and then backed it off to 13. Beer pours a nice thick head and tastes great even green. Just to think this is my third ever batch, first all grain and first keg. I love this hobby, I'm going for another pint!


On a side note I one-shot my og by nearly ten points and I think it gave the abv a slight bump. My hydrometer readings pointed to about 5.9% and I expected 5 I think. Oh well, this beer is good so that's all I care about.

Congrats on the good beer. If you made this from an extract kit, it's almost impossible to miss the OG unless you mis-measured the water. It's very difficult to mix the wort and water completely and it's quite likely that you got a little more of the sugars in your sample. It's all good. Enjoy!

This was an all grain beer.

Double congrats for making good beer and for getting better efficiency than you had expected giving you higher OG and more ABV in that beer.

Awesome Job!

Now get back in there and brew another. The first one will be gone before you know it.

Congrats. It feels good when you brew a winner. Im coming off back to back stinkers. At least i know wht i did wrong on both. Just remember to always pay attention to every detail. On both of my last two batches i slipped up on one step, sparge temp. So keep your head in there and youll keep makin great beers.

mikeysab said:

Congrats. It feels good when you brew a winner. Im coming off back to back stinkers. At least i know wht i did wrong on both. Just remember to always pay attention to every detail. On both of my last two batches i slipped up on one step, sparge temp. So keep your head in there and youll keep makin great beers.

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How would your sparge temp make a crappy beer? You may not have had the efficiency you wanted, but you still make wort. Yeast make beer.

By sparging too hot and killing conversion and winding up with under attenuated, sweet beer

mikeysab said:

By sparging too hot and killing conversion and winding up with under attenuated, sweet beer

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Your conversion should have been completed before you lauter and your sparge temperature should have nothing to do with getting sweet beer.

I have a cream ale conditioning in another keg that was my second all grain. I primary fermented both of these for 7 weeks and then racked straight to keg. I have supplies to get two more going this weekend, and I have an apfelwein that is nearing week 10, it will go in a keg this time. Last apfelwein went in bottles.

mikeysab said:

By sparging too hot and killing conversion and winding up with under attenuated, sweet beer

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What you are describing is the reason for a mash out step. By denaturing the enzymes, you are halting conversion which "locks in" the fermentability of the wort. All conversion should be complete by the time you finish the mash

Whoops, mash temp, not sparge. See, taking notes helps, but READING them helps more.